The title should give you some idea of how long this two-and-a-half hour film really feels. Actually, watching it is like playing Call of Duty for 72 hours straight – only without the subtlety and insight. Director Michael Bay brings his robust talents to bear on a fictionalised account of how, from dusk till dawn one terrible night in 2012, a heroic six-man American security team defended a US diplomatic compound against Islamist terrorists in the Libyan city of Benghazi. Big guys. Big guns. Big bangs. And in many cases big beards: like a Marine Corps ZZ Top.
It is pretty much a freeform action blitz, almost experimentally non-narrative, with explosions coming so liberally that they are almost like a drum roll. Sweet, gentle John Krasinski is the very unlikely star of this tough-guy outfit. He has a little starter beard himself. That interesting character actor James Badge Dale plays the guys’ careworn leader. Inevitably, the movie pursues the “Rambo” narrative of betrayal: our warrior-heroes are let down by the pointy-headed guys of the CIA and the drama ends by darkly hinting that some of the local “friendlies” sold them out. Your ears will be ringing at the end of this, drowning out the sound of snores.
